Paladins: Champions of the Realm has turned out to be quite the successful FPS-MOBA hit over the past month. First, Hi-Rez Studios and Chinese investment holding company Tencent Holdings brought the game into the Chinese casual and eSports market. Then the game emerged on Steam’s top 10 list, along with plans for inviting international teams to Hi-Rez’s official Paladins Invitational. Now, the PlayStation Blog has officially announced that Hi-Rez Studios’ offering is headed to PlayStation 4, with the official Paladins website also offering an Xbox One sign-up.
Posted by Hi-Rez Console Producer Kabir Barry, the PlayStation Blog announcement reveals that Paladins was “designed with console in mind” during the game’s development. In order to create a solid console control scheme, Barry states that Hi-Rez “enlisted some big-name console gamers to make sure the control scheme feels just right.” Of course, the game is also free on console, just as it is on PC: making it an easy FPS-MOBA choice for players that cannot quite afford Blizzard’s Overwatch or Gearbox Software’s Battleborn.
The news is also a major move forward for Paladins, providing Hi-Rez an ever-expanding audience to play their game. With Barry noting that “more than 1 million people played Paladins” during its first ten days in open beta,” it’s certainly proven a popular title on PC and Mac alone. Its debut on Steam most likely helped boost Paladins‘ popularity too, raising it into a unique alternative to Blizzard’s retail release. But the jump into the console market may give Paladins the push to break out across demographics, landing with both PC enthusiasts and console players looking for a quick competitive fix.
No plans have been announced yet by Hi-Rez for the Closed Beta’s official release date. Until then, links for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are live now, so feel free to stop by and put your name in.
